CMS: Incentive payments for e-prescribing on the rise

April 3, 2012

There has been a significant increase in the amount of incentive payments distributed through CMS's electronic prescribing program, according to a recent CMS report.

The report—titled, "2010 Physician Quality Reporting System and eRx Experience Report"—also found that the amount of payments and the number of participants has increased for CMS's Physician Quality Reporting System.

E-prescribing program findingsFor the e-prescribing program, the report found that the amount of incentive payments distributed grew from $148.7 million in 2009 to $270.9 million in 2010, an 83% increase.

In 2010, 65,857 eligible health care providers received an average e-prescribing incentive payment of $3,836 and 18,713 medical practices received an average e-prescribing incentive payment of $14,476, the report noted.

According to the report, the specialties with the highest rate of participation in the e-prescribing program in 2010 were:

The report noted that payment adjustments will begin this year for certain health care providers who do not meet the reporting requirements of the e-prescribing program (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 4/1 [subscription required]).

Review a recently published study that suggests prescribing errors are as common in prescriptions written using ambulatory EMRs and other e-prescribing systems as they are in handwritten prescriptions, and learn why this study poses as many questions as it answers.

Patients are more likely to pick up their medications from a pharmacy if their physician issues a prescription electronically rather than by traditional prescribing methods, according to data from the electronic prescribing network Surescripts.